The chief of Bhushan Steel Neeraj Singal runs an integrated steel plant in Orissa, which is accused of flouting various labour laws and safety norms.

The company, formerly known as Bhushan Steel and Strips Ltd, operates a 3-million-tonne per annum steel plant in Meramundali area of Dhenkanal district of Orissa.

Officials of the district administration say that the firm has 96 cases against it for violating labour laws enshrined under the Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Wages Act and other relevant laws.

The company landed in a major problem last November when three of its workers were killed and 29 injured due to an explosion while commissioning a slag granulation plant. All this happened even when the company’s steel plant did not have the ‘Consent To Operate’ certificate from the Orissa State Pollution Control Board. Although the police arrested the company’s CEO and other officials, Singal managed to evade arrest.

Last December, the Orissa government conceded in the state assembly that Bhushan Steel neither followed safety norms in commissioning its facilities nor had it deployed trained personnel to do so, which had resulted in the accident. During the past nine years, the state’s directorate of factories and boilers registered cases against the company management for violating safety norms under the Orissa Factories Rules, 1950, and the Factories Act, 1948.

In May, the Dhenkanal district court had issued summons to Singal after cases were filed his company for violating the green laws. The allegation is the firm had set up two power projects without getting requisite approval and without conducting an environment impact assessment.